Romney Wraps Up Six-State Bus Campaign in Native Michigan

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Ann Romney uttered a line yesterday
that probably will be heard repeatedly in speeches she and her
husband make on the presidential campaign trail.

“We’re Midwesterners at heart,” she told hundreds of
supporters as Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee,
stood by her side in Frankenmuth, Michigan. “We both have
parents that came with nothing in their pockets and made great
lives here.”

The Romneys yesterday wrapped up a five-day, six-state bus
tour that included stops in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan,
evidence of their political importance. The first three of those
Midwestern states have been hotly contested in recent
presidential elections. Ohio, in particular, is prized, in part
because it so often tracks the national vote.

A study by the University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics
website showed that, since 1964, the popular vote in Ohio has
deviated just 1.3 percentage points from the national tally in
presidential races. It also is the only state to pick the winner
in each of those elections.

Michigan -- which Democratic presidential candidates have
carried in every race since 1992 -- this year joined the other
Midwestern states as a potential battleground, in part because
of the Romney family ties to it.

Severing Ties

Romney, 65, was born and raised in Michigan, where his
father, George, served as a car company chief executive and then
as popular three-term governor. Ann grew up near him, and they
began dating in their teens. After high school, though, he
mostly severed his Midwest ties and went on to become a governor
of Massachusetts from 2003-2007. He now owns homes in that
state, New Hampshire and California.

Romney traveled east to west across Michigan on the final
day of his bus tour.

“If Michigan gives me the win, I’ll be the next president
of the United States,” he told supporters in the town of
Holland, his last stop. After his remarks, he held hands with
his wife and they walked to the beach to dip their feet in Lake
Michigan’s cool water.

The tour gave Romney a chance to focus on challenges facing
small communities, test drive potential vice presidential
running mates and provide plenty of pictures for the media. They
included shots of the candidate posing with cows, piloting a
Mississippi River paddle-wheeler and making pie crust.

Romney’s Goal

It was all part of an effort to boost the regular-guy
credentials of a multimillionaire who helped found the Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital LLC. As the tour
progressed from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania into the
Midwestern states, Romney also became more accustomed to
speaking over the shouting voices of Democratic protesters
gathered nearby.

As he traveled through the six states that each went for
President Barack Obama in 2008, Romney kept his focus on the
economy and argued he would do a better job of promoting a
climate friendly to small business and entrepreneurs.

He also started to confront tricky campaign messaging
regarding improving economies in states such as Ohio, Wisconsin
and Iowa.

“You’ve seen governors who have taken some bold action to
make sure we’re not spending more than we take in,” he told a
group of business leaders at one session. “It’s resulting in a
big turnaround in those states, with higher employment levels
than they have seen in the past.”

States as Models

Romney mentioned Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana and
Tennessee -- all state’s with Republican governors -- adding
that the federal government in Washington must do “what we are
doing at the state level.”

Iowa and Wisconsin in particular among the Midwest
battleground states have unemployment rates well below the
national average of 8.2 percent. Iowa’s rate in May was 5.1
percent, while Wisconsin’s was 6.8 percent.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, introducing Romney in
Frankenmuth, said his state’s recovery is being “slowed down by
the mess in Washington.” He said Romney could move the nation
forward because he “understands the real economy.”

Though most polls give Obama the advantage in Michigan, an
EPIC-MRA survey of 600 likely voters in the state released on
June 14 showed Romney ahead by a single percentage point. The
poll’s margin of error was plus or minus four percentage points.

Democrats say Romney will face an uphill race in the state,
in part because he needs to explain why he would have let the
auto industry go bankrupt -- a reference to his opposition to
the federal bailout of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group
LLC.